High anxiety
Past resort
Evermore Americans worry about the future of our nation and economy
Museum offers look at bygone ski hill hills that once dotted Vermont
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Volume 54 Number 4
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January 23, 2025
Employees Wooly winterers push back on benefits changes BRIANA BRADY STAFF WRITER
At the Shelburne selectboard meeting last week, the board considered changes to employee health insurance benefits as part of the proposed budget for the coming year, prompting a backlash from concerned employees. Currently, the town covers the entirety of the premium for employees on the MVP Health Care gold plan. According to an email sent by the town manager to employees in advance of the meeting, the changes would ask for a 5 percent employee contribution for that plan, reduce or remove employer support for deductibles, and end the current payment offered to employees who have outside coverage. Employees are still set to receive their union-negotiated raises. However, according to town manager Matt Lawless, for employees on the lower end of the pay scale, the amount they would start paying on their insurance would outweigh their increase in salary, negatively impacting their take-home pay. “You’re making a decision to See BENEFITS on page 12
PHOTO BY MARKOS LISSARRAGUE
Markos Lissarrague took this photograph during a recent snowstorm on the hill above the Shelburne Farms barn.
Extra credit: Shelburne students serve on local boards BRIANA BRADY STAFF WRITER
Another high school student will now sit on the Shelburne Parks and Recreation Committee. Ava Nnochiri, a sophomore at Champlain Valley Union High School, was appointed by the town selectboard to the seat last week and is now an official voting
committee member. She will serve along with CVU junior Ellie Johnson, who’s been on the committee for a little over a year. “The reason I want to be on the parks and recreation committee is because I love to volunteer and help with my community,” Nnochiri said at the meeting. “I feel that Shelburne as a whole community is very strong. Like,
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I’ve moved a lot in my life, and I don’t think I’ve ever been such an active part.” Shelburne has allowed students to officially sit on town commissions, boards, and committees since 2018. Like other members, students are expected to regularly attend meetings and make contributions to discussions, but it wasn’t until more recently
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that they gained status as voting members. “We changed our by-laws,” Lisa Merrill, chair of the Pierson Library board of trustees said. “The students used to participate, but we didn’t record what their vote was on different topics. And See STUDENTS on page 13
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